SANTA CLARA, Calif. — After losing to this year’s hosts on penalties in 2020 Florida State claimed the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship with a shootout win against Brigham Young University in Santa Clara on Monday night.
The ghosts from 2020 did not haunt the FSU with Cristina Roque making two big saves to help her team to a 4-3 shootout win after the scoreless draw. Yujie Zhao was given the historic moment as she powerfully hit the penalty to claim the trophy.
“I feel like I had a lot of trust in my teammates, everyone who was stepping up to kick the ball especially (Zhao) finishing it off,” said Roque after the match. “I feel like everyone is behind me no matter which way it goes just how last year it didn’t just go our way and everyone was behind me then. I knew whatever happened this year they were going to be behind me. I’m not gonna lie it does feel better here.”
With the win Florida State has won three titles, all coming in the last eight years. That makes the side the second most successful NCAA Division I women’s soccer team tied with Notre Dame and Stanford. Only the dominant North Carolina side has more titles.
The match itself was a real clash of styles with the free-scoring Cougars taking on the stout defense from Tallahassee. It was just the third time all year that BYU had been held scoreless in a match.
BYU had the ball in the back of the net, only to be denied by an offside flag keeping the match scoreless. Emily Madril made a perfect sliding challenge on the eight-yard box to keep it scoreless at half-time.
In the 71st minute, Jody Brown ran through the BYU defense and had a chance at a close range but sent her shot off target from a tight angle. One minute from time Florida State nearly won the match from Zhao’s corner only for the shot from Jody Brown to go over the bar.
Extra time saw good defense from both sides forcing the match to penalties, which Florida State won to claim the title.
Photo courtesy Florida State University
Florida Soccer Report 